Hearing Dwight Yoakam's "Guitars, Cadillacs" the other day has got me on an alt country kick. It seems to me that 1985-1995 was the alt-country heyday.

What are some of your favorite 1985-1995 alt country cds that I've overlooked? How about since then?

Here's my top 25 from 1985-1995:

http://teenkicks.blogspot.com/

I like plenty of the titles above (and your list) - a lot, but The album for me was
BottleRockets: The Brooklyn Side

I think this is a period when Nanci Griffith was at her peak. I'd nominate both of these albums by her for the list:

Once In A Very Blue Moon
Last of the True Believers

Also, Wilco's first album, Jason and The Scorchers, and Lyle Lovett.

wadabout the Jayhawks - Hollywood Town hall?

Here's the full top 25 list. Guess you guys aren't much for polls, eh?

1. Jason & The Scorchers - Lost & Found (1985) - “White Lies”

2. Lone Justice - Lone Justice (1985) - “East of Eden”

3. Beat Farmers - Tales of The New West (1985) - “Goldmine”

4. Steve Earle – Guitar Town (1986) - “Someday”

5. Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. (1986) - “Guitars, Cadillacs”

6. Dave Alvin - Romeo's Escape (1987) - “Fourth of July”

7. Foster & Lloyd - Foster & Lloyd (1987) - “Sure Thing”

8. John Hiatt - Bring The Family (1987) - “Have A Little Faith in Me”

9. Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams (1988) - “I Just Wanted to See You So Bad”

10. Rodney Crowell - Diamonds and Dirt (1988) – “She’s Crazy For Leavin”

11. Gear Daddies - Let's Go Scare Al (1988) – “Boys Will Be Boys”

12. The Rave-Ups - The Book of Your Regrets (1988) – “Freedom Bound”

13. Peter Case - Blue Guitar (1989) – “Travellin’ Light”

14. The Silos - The Silos (1990) – “I’m Over You”

15. John Doe - Meet John Doe (1990) – “Take # 52”

16. Alejandro Escovedo – Gravity (1992) – “One More Time”

17. The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall (1992) – “Settled Down Like Rain”

18. Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne (1993) – “We’ve Been Had”

19. Robert Earl Keen - A Bigger Piece of The Sky (1993) – “Corpus Christi Bay”

20. The Bottle Rockets - The Bottle Rockets (1993) – “Kerosene”

21. Iris DeMent - My Life (1993) – “No Time to Cry”

22. The Mavericks - What A Crying Shame (1994) – “There Goes My Heart”

23. Bob Woodruff - Dreams and Saturday Nights (1994) – “Hard Liquor, Cold Women, Warm Beer”

24. Son Volt – Trace (1995) – “Windfall”

25. Wilco – A.M. (1995) “Box Full of Letters”

Pretty much anything by Blue Rodeo.

I enjoy most of the artists listed above, but for me, Lone Justice sparked my interest in this type of music (even though they released only two albums before breaking up). Thankfully, we still have Maria McKee.

This just shows that Rank & File are rarely acknowledged for their part in the alt country scene. Had the survey began in 1982, I would have voted for Sundown.

Actually it doesn't show that at all... but it does show that Rank and File's two seminal alt-country albums (Sundown and Long Gone Dead) were not released between 1985 and 1995.

Also not released between 1985 and 1995 were Joe Ely's Honky Tonk Masquerade, The Blasters' The Blasters, Jason & The Scorchers Fervor and the Del Lords Fronteir Days.

All I've got in this region is Wilco's "Summerteeth", you know, "the ashtray says, you were up all night".

Well, I started out by getting ready to say it was essentially a toss-up between Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo with the tie being broken by SV's Tear-stained Eye, a song I never get tired of hearing. And then just as I clicked the vote button my reading skills kicked in and I saw Lucinda Williams. But too late. So when you count the votes for Son Volt remember one of them is for LW.

Yours after a very long week....

The Knitters-Poor Little Critters on the Road

Excuse me, where are the REST of the Uncle Tupelo albums?????? They're all worth of this list and any other best of list. Mark T.

All 4 Tupelo discs are stellar, but this list was limited to one per artist.

Green On Red were one of the best bands of this genre spawning some great solo projects from Chris Cacavas, Chuck Prophet and Dan Stuart. Long Ryders were not too shabby as well.

I'm going with Anodyne, a great, great album, although I like March 16-20 just as well. I almost had to cast a vote for Blue Mountain, a band that hasn't been mentioned yet. Dog Days was a pretty great album. And I thought of Cheri Knight's Northeast Kingdom, which I think is the equal of any album mentioned here, but the release date was '98, so it doesn't qualify.

Cheri, where are you?

Hank is wise. Listen to him.

Didja ever hear the Danny and Dusty disc?

Tomorrow The Green Grass - The Jayhawks


Being There - Wilco, On Golden Smog - Golden Smog and the previously mentioned Hollywood Town Hall and AM all belong along with all Uncle Tupelo releases.

Your Love and Other Lies - Buddy Miller

Although they started out pre-1985, the Long Ryders were still recording then, surprised not to see them as a choice. They would have my vote.

Oops, you're looking for a specific cd; would have to say "State Of Our Union" from 1985, with "Two Fisted Tales" (1987) as a second choice.